How it all began, Imaginary Friends and the Friday Night Music Club (FNMC)

It was late July 2021 when Stephen Chapin posted on Imagery NC, “are there any old rockers out there who want to play some music?”  Denny Fohringer and I responded, and we met for an initial jam session in Steven’s loft on Van Gogh.  We had some fun and felt some mojo. 

Next, we started scheduling the Celebration Cabin so we could turn up the volume. Both Denny and Stephen had a great repertoire of previous music to play so we began developing a song list to practice.

We started out trying to use electronic drums tracks.  Stephen’s networking in the community discovered a drummer moving in on Chagall Crossing Way.  David D’Agostino plays both a drum kit and Cajon/Bongos. Perfect. Denny on lead guitar, vocals, Stephen on keyboards, bass and vocals, David on percussion, and me on rhythm guitar. 

Our first get together was on November 15th 2021, this original foursome was named “The Imaginary Friends Band”.

We wondered:  Are there other musicians out in the Imagery community?  Bluegrass anyone?

That next month in December of 2021 we did another Imagery NC Facebook post “calling on all Imagery musicians…” and soon discovered Quin Werthauer, Niles Oesterle, Mike Davlin, Doug Burns, Dawn and John Chaffier, and Kim Recktenwald.  We held our first group Jam session at the Celebration Cabin with 5 classic rock songs and 5 Christmas songs on December 17th 2021.  We had 7 musicians and a few significant others in attendance. It was a lot of fun and provided the inspiration for the “Friday Night Music Club” (FNMC).

David D’Agostino formally launched FNMC In January 2022 and we had our first Friday night session on Feb 4th, 2022.   Each month the club member brought a few songs they want the group to learn and sometimes we just wing it and jam. We’re always looking for other musicians and singers and expect that FNMC will spawn further musical ensembles going forward.   

June 7th 2022 was our first official Concert at the swimming pool deck.

Other member joining since are Bill Kessel, Jim Zinser, Rob Smilow, Donelle Toner, Scott Thompson,  John Chaffier, Kimberly King, Sue Lemy, Kit von Bartheld, John McCall, Jason Vasilew, Eddie Starling, and Mandy Day.

In the summer of 2023, a spinoff ensemble of FNMC members formed a group "Driveway Drinkers" to play at some of the local establishments. Their first gig was September of 2023.

Hank Westerman